Man charged in 2 West Side iPhone robberies

Semajay Hyles, 20, of the 1700 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, was tracked by police and arrested in connection with two West Side iPhone robberies Tuesday.

Semajay Hyles, 20, of the 1700 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, was tracked by police and arrested in connection with two West Side iPhone robberies Tuesday. (Chicago Police photograph)

Staff report

A 20-year-old Logan Square man was arrested Tuesday night after he robbed two people of their iPhones at gunpoint, Chicago police said today.

Semajay Hyles, of the 1700 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, was charged with two felony counts of armed robbery with a firearm.

Officers from the Near West District robbery mission team responded to a call of a man who had just been robbed of his wallet and iPhone at gunpoint in the 1100 block of North Wood Street at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood.

The officers – trained in activating the tracking application on stolen or misplaced iPhones – immediately tracked the victim’s phone to the West Humboldt Park neighborhood where they saw a man matching the description of the armed robber, police said.

When officers stopped the man at Chicago Avenue and Pulaski Road and patted him down, they found a .22-caliber handgun hidden in his pants, police said.

The officers found the iPhone from the Wood Street robbery and also found another iPhone taken in an earlier armed robbery, police said. That crime occurred about 8:15 p.m. near Grand Avenue and Ada Street in the West Town neighborhood.

The victims in both robberies identified Hyles as the robber, police said.

Hyles appeared for a bond hearing today before Cook County Criminal Court Judge Israel Desierto who set his bail at $350,000, according to court records.